Exhaustion
by VerySpecialSnowflake
Summary: Janine falls asleep at her desk from exhaustion and Egon provides her with a blanket. Takes place in the universe of the first film.


A rainy night fell over New York, and it was Janine Melnitz's luck to find herself under a tin roof, listening to the white noise that threatened to put her to sleep. She had a tenuous grasp on what she was doing; there were scattered papers in lazily articulated stacks, and she assumed they were supposed to mean something. Janine leaned back in her chair, aware of her new headache, and lifted up her glasses to rub her eyes. She had hoped that rubbing her eyes would keep her awake, but she found each attempt failing. Normally, Janine would have given up on all this work and called it a night, but she did not feel like getting up and standing in the rain, waiting for a cab. Sure, she had an umbrella, but she was also wearing thin Spandex. Her legs would get soaking wet and ultimately make her more miserable.

"Alright, maybe I should just take a little break," she reasoned aloud, her voice echoing off the concrete walls. The call of sleep only grew stronger as she made her way to the coffee maker.

She downed the first cup of coffee she'd consumed in several hours, and still did not feel its desired effects. Janine assumed that the caffeine would eventually kick in, and she sat back down and tended to her work. Twenty minutes, and the impatient Janine still wanted to pass out on her desk and sleep.

Too tired to do anything about it, she pushed her ineffective coffee aside and put her head down. Inevitably, she fell asleep from exhaustion. She was discovered in her arguably embarassing state by no other than Egon, who, apart from being a friend to the Ghostbusters team, gained a reputation for being Janine's crush. Egon himself was not so convinced of the other's conspiracies and wrote it off as drivel. However, he did hold something of tenderness toward Janine and her contribution to his work. Although she was a secretary and didn't participate in field work, she had stayed with them despite having "quit better jobs than this", as she once boldly declared.

He had woken up at four in the morning to run routine checks on the multitudes of hazardous experiments and the like that were just lying around the firehouse. He and Ray held the responsibility of making sure that their place of business didn't blow to smithereens. Upon descending the stairs, he found the bright light at Janine's desk still on, which he found strange. Subsequently, he spied Janine fast asleep and put two and two together. Egon would be lying if he said he hadn't had a few nights that ended in this exact manner.

Without much effort, Egon retreated back upstairs to grab a blanket from his bed. In a swift motion, he placed it around Janine's hunched over figure and left before the others could admire his handiwork. He had work to do.

"Janine, what's this blanket you've got wrapped around you?" The bold voice of Peter Venkman startled Janine awake an hour later. She took notice of the warm blanket around her, and looked back up at Peter, who was expecting an answer.

"Did any of you get up earlier than the rest of us," Ray asked as he came down the stairs.

A blush rose to Janine's face. She had a sneaking suspicion as to who would have done this. Ray joined Peter at his side, and now they both expected answers.

"I'm not sure how this got here," Janine replied, holding up her blanket and trying her best to suppress a smile.

"Are you sure," Ray queried in his trademark seriousness.

"Well, if you didn't get up, and I didn't get up, then it must have been Egon," Peter reasoned.

As if on cue, Egon entered the room, probably because he heard his name. He stood beside Janine's desk with that authoritative seriousness, which made her all the more infatuated.

"I heard you talking, and I put the blanket on Janine."

With her suspicions confirmed, Janine allowed her suppressed smile to finally bloom. Egon cast a glance at her and gave a small, near imperceptible smile. Then, the phone rang, ending their small moment.

"Hello, Ghostbusters, how can we help you?"

The three scientists took off in their Ecto-1, and Janine considered her morning to be a win.


End file.
